


Live

by binkty



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Abbie Lives, Angst, Declarations Of Love, F/M, First Kiss, Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 20:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11721765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/binkty/pseuds/binkty
Summary: A reworking of the box regeneration scene in the Catacombs where there's no Betsy Ross (because why was she even there?) and Crane steps up before the box can get to Abbie.(Another over a year old fic gets finished off!)





	Live

Abbie’s gaze volleyed between Crane and the remnant of Pandora’s Box that lay before him as he recited the ancient words scribed across the altar. They were promised that these words, read in this secret chamber in the heart of the Catacombs, would remake the fabled box and that once it was remade its restored power would be the key to taking down the Hidden One. That this information was brought to their attention by Pandora herself left both Witnesses more than a little wary but with the ticking time bomb of the Hidden One rapidly gaining power and his promise to destroy all of existence once it was fully restored, they were left with no other option. It was trust in Pandora or watch the world burn.

As the last words of the incantation were spoken, the lid of Pandora’s Box rose in a swirl of black smoke and the two Witnesses watched as it became a starburst of light, spinning in midair with billows of thick smoke gathering below it. Before long, the starburst was engulfed by its roiling pedestal and the smoke proceeded to collapse in on itself, condensing more and more until even the faintest wisps had disappeared, leaving in their wake the reformed box which settled back down onto the altar as though it was no heavier than a feather.

“The details on that box used to be silver,” Abbie pointed out, looking up from the box to Crane. “Now they’re black.”

“Indeed.” Crane’s hands hovered near the box as he stared down at it with concern. 

“Did we do something wrong?”

“I performed the incantation as instructed.” He caught the gleam of blue light as he lifted his gaze to meet hers and turned his head to find that a series of what looked to be the same glowing text that had adorned the surface of the altar moments ago had appeared at the top of the stone wall directly across from the altar’s head. Quickly, Crane stepped closer to read it and his eyes grew wide as he deciphered its meaning.

“Step away from the box, Lieutenant,” he cautioned, his voice a deceptive calm.

“Crane?”

“Now, Lieutenant!” Turning toward her, he took hold of her arm and pulled her behind him just as tendrils of smoke started to feel their way out of the box’s suddenly open mouth. He slammed the lid shut once more and stood so that his body remained between Abbie – who looked on in stunned silence – and the box.

“What is going on, Crane?” Abbie asked after a beat. “What the hell did it say on that wall?”

“It would seem we may have been deceived,” he informed, a protective arm still out in front of her and his eyes careful to remain ever on the box. “The cuneiform speaks of needing the radiance of one who bears witness in order to bind the evils of the world.”

Abbie felt no more enlightened by that statement than she had before he’d said it but from the way Crane was acting and the creepy seeking smoke that had just come from the box, she knew that whatever it meant couldn’t have been good. 

“Okay, what does that mean?”

“I fear that what gives the box its power, what would turn it from black once more to silver, is one of us.” He risked at glance back at her. “I believe this radiance it says it requires, is one of our very souls.”

They gazed at each other in tense silence as the realities of this revelation slowly set in. In order to stop the Hidden One, one of them would have to give up their soul. 

“Pandora had to have known about this,” Abbie said, forcing anger to overshadow her fear in effort to tamp down how powerless she was feeling.

“I have no doubt of that," Crane replied. "Her insistence that we and we alone perform this task makes that all too clear." He returned his eyes to the box, glaring at how innocuous it seemed, sat there atop the alter, knowing it meant them harm. "She contrived for one of us to fuel her box and for the other to return it to her.” He felt the absolute fool for ever trusting in her.

"We let the bitch play us." 

Abbie stared at the box in a futile hope there was still something, anything that could be done to save them from being forced into surrendering one of their souls. But Pandora had them backed into a corner. The Hidden One had to be stopped and this was their only Hail Mary. There was nothing else for them to do. 

She closed her eyes, taking in a shaky breath and then blowing it out. When her eyes opened again, she gave a resigned nod and started resolutely toward the altar. She made it all of two steps before she felt Crane's arm wrap around her, pulling her back. 

"Lieutenant, what do you think you're doing?" he exclaimed, panic creeping into his voice.

"The Hidden One has to be stopped." She turned her head and tipped her chin toward the centre of the room, keeping her eyes trained on the box, unable to face the fear and worry she saw in his. "And we need that box to do it." 

"That box requires a soul for activation," Crane returned. "We cannot allow–"

"We have. No. Choice, Crane!" she stressed. "We are running out of time. The Hidden One is about to destroyed the world. And if we don't do this, he will." She looked up into his eyes, gaze open and vulnerable, silently imploring him to see reason, to come to the conclusion that she'd already accepted. "There is no other way this time," she said softly. "I have to give it my soul."

"No." He shook his head vehemently and Abbie threw her head back in frustration.

"Crane!"

"No!" he repeated more forcefully. "If there is a soul to be given, it shall be mine."

Abbie was stunned. In her rumination never once did she consider a scenario where Crane would offer up himself. It was either he kept insisting there was something else they could try or he accepted that this was the only way and let her go. It was something she used to reconcile her decision, knowing that Crane would live on to keep fighting. 

"What?" she breathed.

"I will not let you sacrifice yourself, Lieutenant," he stated firmly. "Not again. The world still needs you, Grace Abigail Mills."

Abbie's face crumpled under the weight of emotion she was doing her best to hold back. "It still needs you," she replied, feeling the telltale prickle of tears starting to form in her eyes.

Ichabod smiled gently and shook his head. "No," he said, suddenly calm in spite of the circumstances, "It does not. I am merely a cog in the machine. In many ways, replaceable. You, Abbie," he paused, searching her face, "there is no replacing you. The time we spent in your absence while you remained trapped here has confirmed that. You are the axis upon which all of us spin."

Abbie felt the walls around her closing in. She was starting to realize changing his mind was a futile hope. She shook her head in a last-ditch effort. "You can't do this," she said in a voice so small it could barely be heard.

"I can and I must."

"But you're supposed to live." Unable to hold them back any longer, the first of her tears started to fall.

"And you are not?" Ichabod countered softly, reaching out to wipe away her tears. He left his hands framing her face as he continued, "Abbie, your willingness to sacrifice yourself for others is an admirable quality but trust me when I say you offer this world so much more than your sacrifice. Your bravery in the face of your fears, your endless compassion despite all that you've been through, your brilliant mind with its gift for strategy and discovery, all will be needed in the days to come." 

He stroked her upturned face with his thumbs. "I have lived more than my fair share." 

"No." She tried to twist away from him, not wanting to hear any more words of his goodbye, but he would not let her out of his gentle grasp. She looked up at him pleadingly, holding on to his wrists as he continued.

"This is the moment for which I was spared that day on the battlefield so long ago," he said, smiling serenely. "Suspended in time only to wake so that I might spare you now. So that you may live. And you will live," he insisted. "You will live and you will fight and you will win. And when do you, you will write everything down in Grace Dixon's journal just as she'd planned. And when the time comes you will pass her knowledge down to your children."

"Crane, no," she sobbed.

"Promise me," he said. "Promise me you will let yourself be loved and start a family."

She couldn't manage the words through the tightness in her throat so she nodded instead. 

"Good," Crane smiled.

"I don't wanna lose you," Abbie whispered.

He looked down at her apologetically, wishing things could be different for them. 

“If I could be so bold as to ask of you one thing." His eyes dropped down to her mouth, his thumb tracing the fullness of her bottom lip. "It is selfish and unfair but… Grant me a kiss? If I'm to leave this earth I wish to leave it with the knowledge of the taste of your lips.”

She cried harder but nodded her consent and he bent to meet her as she lifted her chin.

Abbie moved her hands to his face as their lips met, slipping them up into his hair as they allowed the kiss to deepen, angry with herself that she wasted so much time being afraid that now this would be all they had. 

Crane rested his brow against hers when they broke apart. "I love you," he whispered, in case there remained any doubt as to how he felt about her.

"I love you, too," Abbie managed around a stuttered breath. And it was the truth. She couldn't hide from it anymore. She loved him. With everything in her. "This isn't fair."

"I know," he replied. "And I'm sorry." He gave her one more kiss and then started to pull away.

"Crane," she called hopelessly as he slipped from her arms. 

"All will be well, Lieutenant," he comforted. "Have faith."

She gave him a watery smile. “Maybe we could use that book Nevins used to summon the Berserkers to call you out,” she said, even though she knew it wouldn't work. 

The smile he gave her in return was rueful. "Perhaps." 

He turned toward the box and opened the lid. Almost immediately he and the box were caught up in a whirlwind, tinged in a blueish light. He caught Abbie's gaze and spoke the word _live_ and then he was gone, the lid of the box slamming shut, leaving the chamber in a deafening silence.

Abbie sobbed for her loss, collapsing to her knees on the floor, allowing herself a minute to just fall apart before she had to pick herself back up again. And when she did pick herself back up, resolutely wiping at her tears, only one thought filled her mind: taking the Hidden One and his treacherous little wife down. 

Squaring her shoulders, she walked over to and scooped up the wretched box, the new silver detailing evidence of the precious thing held within it, and marched off full of newfound determination. 

Crane's sacrifice would not be in vain.


End file.
